New Delhi: A team of 150 police personnel led by Additional Superintendent of Police and three Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) carried out searches at the Isha Foundation’s ashram in Thondamuthur on Tuesday.
It followed a Madras High Court order seeking a report on all criminal cases registered against spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev’s institution.
“As per the court order, the police have come to the Isha Yoga Center for a general inquiry. They are speaking with residents and volunteers to understand their lifestyle and how they stay here,” the Isha Yoga Centre stated in a statement.
Earlier, the court had asked Coimbatore Rural Police to investigate a habeas corpus petition filed by a retired professor, Dr S Kamaraj, who claimed his two daughters were held against their will at the foundation’s yoga center in Coimbatore’s Velliangiri foothills. He also accused Isha Foundation of brainwashing individuals and converting them into monks.
The court raised questions about perceived contradictions in the life of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the Isha Foundation’s founder, noting that he married off his own daughter while reportedly encouraging other young women to renounce worldly life and live as hermits.
However, both women, present in court, stated that they were there voluntarily and denied any coercion.
Meanwhile, Bollywood actor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kangana Ranaut termed the accusations ‘“bizarre” as she came out in support of Jaggi Vasudev, popularly known as Sadguru.
“What bizarre accusation, Sadhguru ji has never been against marriages, there are proper marriage rituals in the Aashram temples, many people get married there, most volunteers who live in the aashram prefer to marry,” The Indian Express quoted Kangana as saying.
She also accused the DMK government in Tamil Nadu of harassing the Sadguru and Isha Yoga Foundation, according to news reports.
Sadguru’s Isha foundation has also issued a statement in this regard:
